“For a period of time, I almost always carried an Android phone with me in addition to my main iPhone. This was due in part to the fact that I often review Android phones as part of my job, but it was also because there were so many great Android features that were nowhere to be found in iOS,” Zach Epstein writes for BGR. “Android of course still has plenty of capabilities that iOS does not, but gap has narrowed substantially in recent years and I never carry an Android phone anymore unless I’m reviewing it.”
Here’s another reason why:
“In a post on its Securelist blog, Kaspersky Lab wrote about the discovered of a fascinating and terrifying new piece of Android malware that has been uncovered. It’s called ‘ZooPark’ and it’s essentially an amalgamation of every scary malware you can think of,” Epstein writes. “ZooPark can monitor keylogs and clipboard data, so it can steal sensitive data such as passwords, as noted by ZDNet. It can also swipe saved information such as contacts. ZooPark can capture the user’s screen at any time, it can steal photos, and it can even record video of the user’s screen while he or she uses an Android device.”
“But wait, I’m not even finished yet. ZooPark can access call records or even record audio from phone calls made on an infected device. It can steal data from secure apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. It can force a front or rear camera to covertly capture photos or videos,” Epstein writes. “Then without the user even knowing, it can make calls, send texts, or execute shell commands to transmit all the data and files it captures.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, the toxic hellstew that is Android is the gift that keeps on taking.
People who value privacy and security use Apple products. — MacDailyNews, September 12, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Android’s trust problem isn’t getting better – April 13, 2018
Android phone makers skip Google security updates without telling users, researchers say – April 13, 2018
Android malware found inside apps downloaded from Google Play has infected at least a million users – March 26, 2018
Facebook has been collecting call history and SMS data from Android devices for years; Apple iOS devices unaffected – March 25, 2018
New Android malware records ambient audio, fires off premium-rate texts, and harvests files, photos, contacts, and more – March 2, 2018
Android malware apps with over 1 million downloads slip past Google Play defenses – twice! – September 14, 2017
How to upgrade from Android to a real Apple iPhone – August 21, 2017
Video: Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at Cisco Live, blasts Android’s shoddy security – June 26, 2017
Security expert: There are several reasons why Apple iPhones are more secure than Android phones – May 31, 2017
Russian hacker gang robbed Russian banks with over one million hacked Android phones – May 22, 2017
36 widely-used Android devices ship with malware preinstalled – March 14, 2017
The cost of free: More than one million Google Android devices hit by malware – November 30, 2016
Secret backdoor in U.S. Android phones sent location, text, contact data to China – November 15, 2016
Google’s Android platform has a serious flaw – August 23, 2016
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
the author is an in-denial cheapskate, rationalizing away his years of geekoid android use, what are these samsung special features, none, just marketing hype such as more camera pixels or other such bs.
Nice personal attack. Where did you learn such a nice way to look at others?
Fanboy finishing school, of course!
Not Apple users are douchy, but there’s no douche like an Apple douche.
And there’s no douche like me.
Five Stars!
That’s nice but means very little. All those new users coming from emerging nations will never see an iPhone, much less afford one. Google has already set up an iPhone barrier to keep it that way. A couple of low-end Android OSes that run on $50 smartphones. The iPhone is totally locked away from tens of millions of new users. A current user not switching from iOS to Android counts for about .000001% of smartphone owners. Overall Android OS market share percentage is unbreakable and unshakable.
Oh gawd! Somebody still singing the marketshare tune!!!
When people ask why you have a iPhone over a Android your first response should be security. Then tell them about find my phone. This is not built into Android like iPhone. Even if it’s just forgotten not stolen you still have peace of mind where it is. The face and fingerprint ID is not real security on any phone. They are there to make it easy to unlock and to get you to use a passcode. Passcodes are easily cracked with off the shelf software and some expertise. However find my phone let’s you lock and brick your phone before this can happen. This is not built in to Android. Everything else is fluff.
This is not a defense of Google, just a defense of the truth…
https://support.google.com/android/answer/6160491?hl=en
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3217025/android/find-my-device-android-phone.html
Actually it does exist in Android and has in one form or another since 2013. Even Wikipedia “Find My Phone” mentions the Android feature after mentioning the Apple feature.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/android-device-manager-tutorial,news-17620.html
Since Android devices can have Apps installed remotely from the Play Store by a user logged into their Google account, if you want a more ‘full’ featured Phone Finding App you can install it to help find your Android device.
“That’s nice but means very little. All those new users coming from emerging nations will never see an iPhone, much less afford one.”
It pleases me to no end when I see posts like this. Ignorance on this level is no threat to the iPhone. Go ahead and sell 50 million Androids with very little to no profit, and see how long you remain in business.
Android manufacturers are going to go the same way as did computers and digital music players before them. The number of manufacturers will explode, then as severe competition among all those manufacturers (selling the same thing), extreme consolidation will eliminate virtually all of them (leaving behind a token few still fighting over very limited profits). Apple, on the other hand, isn’t concerned about those that cannot “afford” an iPhone (they just want one), instead focusing on building the best, highest quality product at a price that ensures profitability. hmmm, iPhone controls 86% of the worldwide handset industry. Looks like Apple is operating its business as it should, and its working very well.
There’s a reason Google pays over $1 Billion per year to make Google Search the default search engine on iPhone. Its called ad revenue derived from internet searches. Google makes money selling ads on iPhones than it does on its own platform.
“Overall Android OS market share percentage is unbreakable and unshakable.”
So what, you can have all those unprofitable handset sales. Apple doesn’t want them. iPhone X unit sales have led the handset industry every week (27) since its launch, with a price tag 5X the Android average price.
You still don’t quite get it, do you? IT companies are adopting the Gillette business model. Only Apple tries to make money selling the razor handle. All other companies are solely focused on software sales, subscriptions preferably, plus a nice thick lather of ads and data mining.
For how much money people have to pay for Apple hardware, it’d be nice to see Apple offer guaranteed protection against tracking. With as much money as they have sitting unused, a real leader would have kicked Google and Facebook out of the OS years ago. But the current Apple leadership would sell their grandmothers graves if they could. It’s all about the money with Cook. He doesn’t have a spine for customer protection. If he did, it would be in writing in the user agreement wouldn’t it?
But here we are, pretending iOS is uncrackable. Never mind Apple forces updates to keep security up constantly, and even if the walls were unbreakable, most everyone with an iPhone installs waze or google maps or some other tracker constantly feeding the evil big brother companies. Anybody with Android has to work hard to turn off all the crap and applying security, so obviously few of them do it. Instant global data goldmine for google that continues to grow exponentially while Apple struggles to get siri to figure out which way is up. Who’s winning the long game again?
To datamine, market share absolutely matters.
Dear Unrealist,
This is unrealisitic:
it’d be nice to see Apple offer guaranteed protection against tracking.
Learn how the Internet works before wishing for the impossible. Apple has zero to do with and zero control over tracking Internet users. It’s a DUH thing.
This is unrealistic:
…a real leader would have kicked Google and Facebook out of the OS years ago
No, a real monopolist would have kicked Goggle and Farcebook out of the OS ever. I’m of course talking about users being able to choose how to use their Apple devices. At least Apple provides all the choices and tools to allow users to turn OFF all the Goggle and Farcebook junk attempting to interact with victims within the OSes.
This is unrealistic:
But the current Apple leadership would sell their grandmothers graves if they could
Leap into the chasm of the absurd.
But here we are, pretending iOS is uncrackable
Not on this planet. Do you read ANY computer science news?
In all, a disjointed, abstract, off-target, manic post of self-contradictions and why am I bothering? Sheesh.
A philosophical point, to be sure, but….
Security is sold as a feature, but since there’s no absolute security, is it really a feature?
You could argue relative to the competition, but this isn’t about the competition, it’s the expectations raised about the claims on he device.
“It’s all relative” applies to computer device security. We’re still in what I call The Computer Dark Age. It gets better, we keep hoping, as it gets older.
No question, I just wonder how to best honestly describe it as a feature.
Are you for real?
Android: Google’s most evil product.
Over the past couple years, there’s been (IMHO) a newly discovered Android security flaw or vast malware infection every WEEK. I entirely get the usefulness of being able to geek out and manipulate Android devices to the Nth degree. But outside of that high end user niche, particularly down in the newbie and average user niche, there’s a ridiculous amount of security danger using Android devices. In that respect, they’re the exact OPPOSITE of what our increasingly security conscious era requires.
What’s next? That’s what we should be talking about. So long Android. 😛
Until another company can release a product that provides access to the Internet for the poorest of users in other countries, Google Android will continue to increase its user numbers. As with Chromebooks in schools, those used to Google’s services will have a strong incentive to continue use when they become more affluent and consider purchasing more expensive and capable devices.
Android can also be considered the most influential product to reduce the digital divide the world has ever seen.
I enjoy your added perspective, as ever.
If only Google had a bigger incentive to turn Android into something:
A) Without fragmentation among device manufacturers who use it. Mandate immediate updates for all devices, no exceptions. (Yeah, we know that’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than the catastrophe of the now).
B) With a (mostly) guaranteed safe downloads store. No such thing with Android. The Google Play Store is constantly being embarrassed with MASSIVE malware downloads and subsequent damage done to user devices. This is despite years of Google promising to get serious about Store security. 🙄
Those two things would be a great start. They’re two things Apple controls on the iOS platform, running rings around Google.
As always Android, along with practically every other OS, is a work in progress. 🙂
I agree that OS fragmentation is a bit of a problem that Google is attempting to alleviate with their Project Treble (new in Android Oreo) to further abstract out the ‘skin’ that OEMs develop on top of Google Android. This would allow Google itself to send out the OS updates itself in the future w/o Carriers and OEMs requiring as extensive a compatibility check process with their preferred launcher.
Apple does well in curating the Apps in their App store and prevents a lot of potential problems with Apps at that point. However with Android having the ability to side load and install Apps from other sources it is great that they have implemented Google Play Protect to periodically scan on-device Apps for Any Android versions with Google Play installed.
Baby steps and good intentions marketing from Google. Real progress in creating Android security would be welcome. Meanwhile, Android security HELL still reigns. And as ever, I have to cynically laugh considering Google’s Project Zero finds security holes in other developer’s software, but they can’t manage to seriously improve Android security. Cognitive Dissonance lumbers on like a zombie.